Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Rare lupines murdered

Received a message through the grapevine, jungle messaging system, a large portion of which is printed here:

In PoCo, the city mowed down some of the rare & endangered streambank lupines. There is a large area that is fenced off just for the lupines that is fine, but many of the lupines had seeded outside the fence, and these were all mowed down. When I went by to take a closer look, I couldn't even find any lupines inside the fence, tho I might be missing them because they're not in bloom. I will be phoning the city later today to complain....

T.Christie

She also included a few photos too, greatly reduced in size to display here.

This is the site near Kingsway Avenue and Maple Street, beside the Coquitlam river. You can clearly see the numerous damaged stems in the foreground of the last photograph. Photos by T. Christie

UPDATE: I had an email from T. Christie and this was her information gathered from the city:

" I spoke with the City Works Manager, he said the mowing was done by a worker who didn't follow instructions. The worker was only supposed to mow a 1 foot wide strip along the sidewalk, but instead mowed the whole area outside the fence. I was quite impressed with the Works Manager, who was very knowledgeable about the lupines. He and the city are working with a provincial organization to preserve the lupines. He is aware of the situation, and said that there are young plants coming up inside the fence. "

Not the first time and not the last time either that these rare plants are overlooked and destroyed.
The patch along the Pitt River has also frequently been damaged by the mowing staff.

Thanks to T. Christie for the information and being concerned enough to ask questions.